Sword Art Online: Black Vanguard
by Gelmra-Obsidian
Summary: Yuurou Kazuhiro, Gabriel Frost, Caleb Frost - three boys with a complicated life end up trapped in the death game known as Sword Art Online. Read, Favorite, Follow, Review... please.


CHAPTER 1:

Yuurou Kazuhiro

November 6th 2022, Sunday

The official launch of «Sword Art Online» megaserver

1:00PM

I had waited in anticipation for it, «Sword Art Online» that is - Only ten thousand copies of the game were released on a single megaserver, and my apparently legal guardians who didn't look much older than me had managed to snatch up three of those.

Caleb-Senpai, and Gabriel-Oniisama are apparently from England but have traveled all across the world in search of knowledge and new video games, their search lead them to anime, and finally the full-dives. However, I'm not sure how or why they were able to get three copies of SAO or how they were able to buy us all «NERVEGEAR» simply because I requested it they say that they have sources; I can't help but be skeptical.

I brush aside the thoughts and pulled the bulky helmet that was the «NERVEGEAR» over my head and lay back onto my pillow.

"LINK START!"

The initiation of the link was not what I expected, the feeling in my body turned numb. It felt like ice cold liquid from my brain rinsed the feeling from my physical entity, it advanced and my vision faded to white. Then the system welcomed me for the first time to «Sword Art Online», the world started to come into existence around me. The white quickly dissipated, only to be replaced by a variety of colors from the spectrum. Finally, I found myself in a virtual plaza made of stone which glowed yellow under the light of Aincrad's afternoon sun. It took a few moments for the awesome to sink in, but as it did I covered my mouth with my ultra-amazing real-feeling virtual hand and I could physically feel my heart rate rise, the tears streamed down both of my cheeks and my vision blurred realistically. "…a-awesome." I managed with an unsteady voice, continuously wiping my eyes from the endless stream of warm and salty liquid; the crying gradually stopped.

It was then that I looked through my inventory by holding my right hand out in front of me, I quickly dragged it downwards and the «User Interface» or simply «UI» opened. I navigated to the character menu and selected the inventory section. I found nothing of actual worth except the leather vest and elbow pads I was wearing.

With a sigh, I closed the «UI» and turned my attention elsewhere, brushed the black hair from my eyes.

I remembered that most elite players would be heading to the hunting grounds of floor one, and immediately decided to head there – of course I had gotten ahead of myself because I needed to obtain a new weapon before that. So I turned my attention to one of the several NPC shops in the plaza, almost all were surrounded by real players who were actually solid objects in this world. So unlike every other MMORPG I've played, I couldn't just walk through them. I spent a long time standing in one place turning around slowly as I waited for a shop to become available.

Then I saw it… the store I'd get my first weapon from. It was a small and rather insignificant run down shop which was empty – compared to any other store at least.

I approached the shop, the sound of my leather boots was silent against the stone and I opened my mouth to speak my very second word in this world. "Buy," I mumbled and a menu appeared in front of me, presenting a list of objects that I could purchase from this individual. As a player that was completely broke, my first choice was the free weapon he was selling: «Bronze Shortsword»

I went through the process of equipping the unremarkable weapon through the inventory menu and drew the blade from the sheathe it belonged to; which had automatically attached itself to my left thigh. The blade itself was rather dull. This was a strong indication that it wouldn't do very much damage; even with the assistance of a sword skill. On a side note it wasn't very durable either. "Will have to do." I stated bluntly and then looked at the stat bonus of my leather vest, sadly it was non-existent and sold for an interesting amount of col. «Col» is the currency of the castle known as «Aincrad», it can be used to buy whatever you want, ranging from consumables, foods, drinks, armors, weapons, houses and whatever else you can think of.

The vest was worth 60 col.

So I sold it, and used the newly acquired 60 col to purchase an «Iron Shortsword», which was a lot cheaper than an iron sword but had a lower durability. However, durability of two daggers was higher than a single «Iron Longsword» and I'd be able to use its fast attack and sword skill charge time to level up at a relatively higher speed than those using standard sword weapons because of its somewhat higher «Damage Per Second»

I was now satisfied with my decision, for now at least. I had also set my sights on another weapon with a higher value and durability: «Blacksteel Zweihander». The weapon was a great contrast to the dagger which I had equipped at the moment but it's «Sword Skill» damage was a ton higher than a blacksteel dagger. However, the required level of this item was level eight and its cost: 13k col.

I then began my walk to the first floor fields just outside of the starting city and a hand suddenly landed on my shoulder, so I hesitantly turned to look at them. The first thing I noticed about them was the truly familiar white hair, and the two individuals looked exactly the same… except – one of them was a girl. "Hey Yuu-kun." The eldest of my two senpais stated bluntly. "What took you so long?" He asked with that same stupid grin, and I couldn't focus on what he asked because the other twin was… still a girl.

"W-what the hell is he doing?" I pointed at him… her, whatever, and she just smiled.

"Who, Caleb?" Gabriel, the eldest twin slowly turned to him, "Right, about that – like most carefree individuals he wanted to know what it's like to be in the physical form of a member of the opposite gender."

'Couldn't he have just said girl?' I thought with annoyed disbelief. "Oh." I answered simply and stared at Caleb's girl avatar for a few moments. "So… how long do you intend to play with this character?"

We stood there for a few quiet seconds.

Gabriel opened his menu and in a few moments a party invite appeared with a rather annoyingly satisfying but average notification in front of my face.

GAROST has invited you to a party

ACCEPT/DECLINE

O/X

I pressed the O button and accepted the party invite, and then their green HP bars appeared below my own. Theirs were smaller than mine so that it didn't cause any sort of confusion. "What now?" I asked him – though I felt like I was forgetting something.

The two of them just looked at me with unblinking eyes, for an awkward few seconds that felt like forever. "We're going to go kill boars at the starting area until we hit level 5, then we're heading to the next village, activating the teleport gate and then teleporting back to the starting city to buy better weapons and armor."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to level in this game?" Caleb nudged Gabriel and his eyes were filled with some sort of parental concern, his eyes flicked in my direction – and I felt annoyed.

"Hey! " I shouted, pointing a finger at Caleb. "I can take care of myself, and I want to be the best in this game!" I raised my voice in the massive courtyard, and after I realized I had gotten angry, I felt somewhat embarrassed that somebody might be watching us.

Caleb and Gabriel both smiled innocently in response and then went on to have their discussion.

"Don't you realize Yuu-kun is still a human? He needs to consume at least three meals a day and he doesn't possess the same psychological stamina as us." Caleb stated, the concern in his voice was real and sincere – but that didn't stop it from pissing me off, and what did he mean 'still a human'?

"Caleb," Gabriel began, planting his hand a top my head and looked betrayed, like a prized trophy in his collection had just been insulted his only blood relative. "Kazuhiro-san isn't a child anymore, one day he will no longer need us. We must teach him the necessary skills to kill - so that when we are gone, he can fend for himself." Gabriel stated bluntly, and ruffled my hair like he had that many more years on this planet than I did.

I brushed his hand off my head and simply walked towards the fields outside the city, what I had called the hunting grounds. "Come on, we're wasting time." I muttered, visibly more annoyed.

When we got there, I was not the first to get a kill on a «Frenzy Boar».

My heart had been racing because it was me in this game, and it was super realistic. I charged the skill with terrible timing at first, being lunged at and ultimately falling backwards after the boar smashing into my abdomen with much force. Gabriel was behind my in an instant, not sure how he moved so fast, but he must've saw the flaws in my technique and simply decided to catch me. He then brushed me to the side and slammed his foot into the boar with so much force that it simply teleported from its standing pose onto its side and was apparently killed by fall damage.

"Well done!" Caleb praised and cheered.

"W-what the hell… is up with you two?" I exclaimed, in awe because of how powerful his kick was, and angered because he stole my kill and came to my rescue because I couldn't stand up to a single lowest level monster.

"I just killed a monster with my foot for 24XP and 30Col… what's your excuse?" Gabriel turned to face me, looking down at me like I was just a weakling, just like somebody… I used to know.

"Don't look at me like that!" I shouted at him, tears welling up in my eyes as I started sobbing, curling my legs up to my chest to hide my face.

"Get up, now is not the time to sob uncontrollably, you said you wanted to be the best! The only way to become what you seek is to surpass all obstacles in your way!" Gabriel shouted, and swung his sword to his side – hitting something with a loud thud. He then let out a confused: "Hm?"

I looked up in time to see the explosion of a boar into tiny pixels and the dumbfound expression that Gabriel was wearing, his mouth turned into a straight line as he was interrupted. "Clearly… these things aren't as smart as the real thing." He stated and another boar, having witnessed the first and second die – decided that enough was enough and let out a loud snort and squeal, to signal it's charge towards Gabriel from behind. Gabriel responded bluntly and flawlessly by turning around and raising his sword. He charged the skill and used «Slant» to slash down onto the boar skull, splitting it in two and causing it to burst into a shower of white pixels. "Mechanics, flawless… AI dormant state is below my expectations." Gabriel mumbled.

"Why did you do that?" I demanded, rising to my feet, unable to keep my emotions back.

"Why did I do what, decide to step in? I was bored watching on the sidelines." He answered, he wasn't very good at lying.

"I don't need your help!" I shouted then ran away.

"Caleb, you're up." I heard him mumble, like they had gotten used to my constant emotional outbursts, everything else was beyond my earshot.


End file.
